TORONTO, ON – May 2, 2017 – Nick Hakim will release his debut full length album Green Twins on May 19 via ATO Records, and is set to head out on tour this month kicking off with dates in Toronto on May 11 and Montreal on May 12. The New York-based musician just released a psychedelic new animated video directed by Micah Buzan for the latest single from the album, “Roller Skates.” Watch it here. Hakim also recently released a live performance video of the album’s title track via Remezcla that can be seen here.

“This song’s first verse is about a night when I got really stoned at my friend’s house and forgot to meet up with my partner,” say Hakim. “It was pouring rain outside and when I realized I was late, I biked through Bedstuy as fast as I could through the rain to find her but she was gone… the second verse is about patching it up, not leaving her house for a couple days. It’s a love song.”

For the video, Buzan notes, “I wanted to tell a simple story about lonely characters who all desire something they can’t seem to get – be it love, a stuffed animal, or the ability to skate well. I also tried to make it kind of funny how their expectations don’t live up to reality. In the end, rollerskating unites all the characters as they join together in the roller rink. We might feel alone, but we’re all in this life experiment together.'”

The album Green Twins is out May 19 on ATO Records, and is the highly anticipated follow up to Hakim’s breakthrough Where Will We Go, Pt. I & II EPs. The new album is an experimental step forward with emotional heft gleaned from his experiences in the years since. He also notes, “I felt the need to push my creativity in a different way than I had on the EPs.” Hakim continues, “We wanted to imagine what it would have sounded like if RZA had produced a Portishead album. We experimented with engineering techniques from Phil Spector and Al Green’s Back Up Train, drum programming from RZA and Outkast, and were listening to a lot of The Impressions, John Lennon, Wu-Tang, Madlib, and Screaming Jay Hawkins.”

Hakim’s debut comes as the culmination of years chiseling his skills as a musician. Hailing from Washington, D.C., he grew up in a musical household-his older brother introduced him to bands like Bad Brains and Nirvana, and his parents exposed him to Nueva canción-while he set out on his own to discover the DC music scene. He didn’t take an interest in learning an instrument until high school, when he taught himself to play the keys. After graduation, he moved to Boston to continue his study of music. In the time since moving to Brooklyn and setting to work for three years on Green Twins, he embraced the live circuit, both as a solo musician and with his band, whom he’s brought together from within his community in Boston and New York.

PRESS QUOTES

“It’s the unadorned, impassioned core of soul, seeped into unorthodox production influences and techniques. Together, it amounts to a sound all Hakim’s own, a look inside his head that gets into your own instead.” – Noisey

“Hakim’s music had the feel of fresh revelation, of a storm brewing in the soul.” – Stereogum

“achingly beautiful soul music that almost always reaches you somewhere deep in your bones” – The FADER

“Hakim’s sounds are deep and soulful, but touches of jarring reverb and eerie synths throw his work into a uniquely beautiful state of unbalance.” – Washington Post

“This man has the most beautiful soul we ever did hear expressed. If your heart has been feeling cold lately, this tune will warm it right up as Hakim’s raspy vocals reverb through the speakers.” – Nylon

“The soul-touched single recalls the production of Madlib and RZA, like an old photograph of neo-soul.” – All Songs Considered, NPR MUSIC